Mortimer Sellers

Mortimer Newlin Stead Sellers (M.N.S. Sellers) (born 1959) is Regents Professor of the University System of Maryland, Elkins Professor of the University System of Maryland, Professor of Law at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and past President of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy (IVR). His work primarily concerns the philosophy of law, legal theory, and global justice with an emphasis on international law, constitutional law, comparative law and legal history. He has been a Regents Professor of the University System of Maryland since 2003, the highest honor in the UM System. Sellers is best known for his books on republican legal and political philosophy, global justice, international law, and universal human rights. He has been Director of the University of Baltimore Center for International and Comparative Law since 1994.

Education The interdisciplinary nature of Sellers' work has been consistent throughout his career. After graduating from Harvard College, summa cum laude, and Harvard Law School, with honors, Sellers studied history, philosophy, and Civil Law at University College, Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar and Frank Knox Fellow, receiving his doctorate in Literae Humaniores (philosophy and classics). He has taught in the University of Baltimore School of Law since 1989, and has taught and pursued research as a visitor at Oxford University, Cambridge University, Harvard University, Georgetown University Law Center, Bryn Mawr College, Erasmus University Rotterdam, and the Academy of International Law in The Hague.

Career Along with authors such as Philip Pettit and Jürgen Habermas, Sellers has been a leader in reviving republican ideas among philosophers and lawyers and in international politics. Sellers' conception of republicanism is grounded in the history of ideas, with an emphasis on constitutional procedures and the concept of the common good. Sellers has written extensively on the republican antecedents of the French Revolution and the American Revolution, and the influence of legal philosophy and legal education on political and social change. He has been an active participant in the development of post-Soviet and post-authoritarian legal institutions in Europe, Asia, and South America.

Sellers’ public influence arises in part from his editorship (with Mark Agrast) of the book series ASIL Studies in International Legal Theory and (with David Gerber) of ASCL Studies in Comparative Law, both published by Cambridge University Press. Much of the most important new thought in international and comparative law has been published in these series. He is also the editor (with Stephan Kirste) of the IVR Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.

In addition to his scholarly work, Sellers has been active in promoting international cooperation between lawyers and judges to advance global justice, through the European-American Consortium for Legal Education (EACLE) and the Brazil-United States Administration of Justice Project, among other initiatives. He is an associate editor of the American Journal of Comparative Law and a member of the editorial board of the Archiv für Rechts- und Sozialphilosophie, Lusíada Direito, Notícia do Direito Brasileiro, and Glossae: The European Journal of Legal History. Sellers is an elected member of the International Academy of Comparative Law, a former H.L.A. Hart Fellow of University College, Oxford, and former Lauterpacht Fellow of Cambridge University. Sellers is married to the journalist Frances Stead Sellers.

See also: Sellers family